I know some parts of the last few chapters may seem a bit rushed, but I tend to get antsy when nearing the end of a story, so I guess you'll have to deal with it, besides I never got top grades in creative writing class...

The conclusion of the story comes next chapter, you'll see it all this week…

Naruto decided to forgo the dark clothes this time around and put on the usual black and orange outfit from days back while Hinata stayed with her more modern look that she perfected over the years spent apart.

Uyoku Myou

(Wings of Life/Destiny)

Part Three: Revelations Chapter 9

High in the air, they could see for miles and eventually spotted the Konoha force deep in the forest outside of Konoha. Climbing a bit higher, they were able to catch a glimpse of the oncoming army as they torched their way through the lands. Hinata stifled a slight gasp as she looked over so many ninja. Easily in the tens of thousands, as compared to their three thousand strong, there was no comparison.

"Hold off an entire army for half a day; how hard can that be? I guess I got that answer." Naruto commented sarcastically. They turned quickly and descended to the forest and landed in the area in front of the command center. After dismounting, they met up with the familiar jonin as they were shouting out orders.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei." The masked jonin looked up and smiled cheesily.

"So anything you want to tell about your honeymoon?" He asked with a grin.

"Not in the least. Anyways, do you know how large the coming army is?" Naruto questioned, wondering if they even knew what was approaching.

"We've had reports of at least 8 thousand." Kakashi replied.

"Well it is more like 10 to 12 thousand." Hinata added unhappily.

"That certainly is troublesome." Shikamaru commented as he was still writing up more strategies within hearing distance.

"And you know Akatsuki don't do things normally, so there is some hidden weapon for sure." Naruto suggested.

"I see. So you suspect this large army is just to take down the inexperienced ninja and possibly tire out the others to easily take us out when their real forces of a few select ninja arrive. Interesting…"

"Uh, sure, yeah that sound like something I'd say." Naruto looked to Hinata and shrugged his shoulders, eliciting a small laugh from her.

"Well, let's just beat them at their own game." Shikamaru ran over to a large board that seemed a lot like a huge chess board, but it actually had a map of the area imposed under the crosshatches. He dumped a huge box of small figurines upon the board and started moving them around. "It may be dangerous, but I say we send all our most powerful fighters upon the dragon and go behind the main force directly at the leaders and jonin commanders. Then we will be at our full strength to battle what they have." Shikamaru separated the figures with a stick so there was a large dragon figure next to figures with Kage robes and a pair that had black and blonde hair.

"Is it wise to send everything they are looking for right into their hands?" Yuki asked as she was watching the planning eagerly.

"Normally, no, but right now I think it would be beneficial to take the fight to them. I also know that you each have widespread devastating attacks, so if you were to take out a few hundred with minimal chakra usage just by surprise, it will even out the odds. Also if we move the battle just a little ways away from here, the reinforcement armies will arrive sooner due to the location. On top of that, when you all land on their flank, they will all turn out of instinct at which time we will have a moment of surprise from our side."

"Well then, why are we wasting time, the sooner we leave, the sooner the reinforcements arrive." Naruto declared energetically. Although the statement wasn't entirely true, it was silently decided that you shouldn't hold Naruto back from a decent fight. Naruto started back towards the dragon when he turned to Rai. "You know, you don't talk too much any more."

"That is because people tend to take you more seriously when you only speak when needed and not blabber like an idiot. You should try it. Just stay quiet for an entire day and see just how many people worry about you, it is a great prank and no one gets hurt." Naruto just chuckled as he continued on.

"That really is a great idea, I'll try it sometime."

"No you won't, unless you tell me first." Hinata warned with a straight face.

"Uh, yeah I'll tell you if I do." Now it was everyone else who was laughing at Naruto being so easily controlled by Hinata. "Hey quit laughing! If you knew what I'd be missing with her being pissed…" Yuki felt slightly lost but then looked over to Hinata, who was beat red, trying to look away.

"Oh, I get it now. Hinata is G.I.B." Yugito immediately started laughing hard and had to use Sumindra's side to steady herself. Hinata was still bright red from embarrassment while Rai and Naruto looked at each other.

"What does G.I.B. mean?" They asked simultaneously. Surprisingly it was Gaara that stepped up.

"Good in bed, now get on the dragon." Apparently Gaara was the only one not laughing now as Naruto's face heated up slightly.

"Yeah, well I have a license to do that now." Shaking the thoughts of the previous days from his head, Naruto jumped up onto Sumindra. "Come on, we're wasting time." He called out to the ninja below. They all suddenly stopped all kidding around and put on a serious face, there was no need for joking in the middle of a war. They all jumped onto the dragon, with Hinata comfortably in the front with Naruto holding her from behind.

"Ok, Sumindra, take us to their flank and try to take out as many as you can while covering our entrance." Hinata ordered happily.

"You got it little one. Now hang on!" With a few mighty flaps of the beast's massive wings, the group of elite ninja were ascending high into the clouds for some cover for their sneak attack.

It was getting difficult to breathe in the high atmosphere, but nothing a trained ninja couldn't handle. Hinata peered off the side of the dragon with her Byakugan active to view the marching army.

"How close are we?" Naruto asked quietly.

"About half way, get ready."

"Hang on guys, this is it!" Sumindra's giant wings folded up next to his body and after a sudden feeling of vertigo, everyone was rushing through the clouds. In only a few seconds they could see through to the ground below, but everything looked so tiny, the one thing they could tell was that the ground appeared to be moving due to their numbers, which was quite unnerving. The wind was now rushing around them so quickly that they couldn't communicate, even if they wanted to, so it was all forward now. The army got closer each passing second and every second more they were risking detection. Just as they were about in range, one ninja soldier looked up with horror.

"Aisu ibuki (Ice Breath)" That poor soul was frozen instantly with the look of horror on his face, but lucky for him, one of Sumindra's tails whipped by him, shattering him to pieces. The ranks were now in chaos as Sumindra's wings opened as his clawed feet bore its ferocity and started carving a huge swath of corpses as he slowed his speed with their bodies under his weight.

"This is where I get off." Yugito called out as she took out two long whips with a smile. She leapt off the still moving dragon and into the fray. "Nenshou hoippu (Burning Whip)" The two weapons surged with fire and started tearing through the ninja easily, it was definitely a technique urged on from the Nibi, two tails of burning fury.

"I guess I'm next." Rai mentioned as he just leapt in the middle of a hoard on ninja amassing for a counter attack. "Hekireki dageki (Thunder Shock)" All you could see of Rai was a sparkling form crouched on the ground in the middle of the hoard until the electricity released in every direction. You could see the enemy being flung upwards by the massive shockwave, each one landing without life after having their nervous system fried.

"I guess it is time to go then, take care, all of you." Yuki leapt off Sumindra and suddenly the air temperature dropped significantly. "Aisu kakera buriza-do (Ice Shard Blizzard)" They hurriedly left the shivering area where screams were sounding at the pain they were suffering from the sharp pieces of ice.

"You ready yet Gaara?" Naruto asked, knowing he was concentrating too much after their arrival to not have something planned.

"I'm done." Gaara just lazily stepped off the dragon onto a cushion of sand with little emotion. Although he now held plenty of feelings, he still decided that they were only his to feel and would keep them all under the surface. "Ryūsa Bakuryū (Quicksand in the Style of a Waterfall)" A huge portion of the immediate enemy soon found themselves covered in a large amount of sand. Before they were able to claw their way to the surface, Gaara firmly planted his palms to the ground. "Sabaku Taisō, (Desert Imperial Funeral)" Gaara felt the ground harden, then there was a moment of complete silence before kunai started flying at the Kazekage.

"No matter how many times he does that, I never get used to it." Naruto commented as he watched the sand start flowing around to protect Gaara from the projectiles. Finally after what seemed like ages, although it was but a few seconds, Sumindra came to a stop before the last regimen of troops equaling near two thousand in all.

"Aisu ame (Ice Rain)" Large shards of ice formed above Sumindra and started launching across the field, striking down those who were not yet ready for the projectiles. "Go, I'll run support." As soon as Naruto and Hinata disembarked, Sumindra was climbing back into the heavens, dodging kunai and shuriken along the way.

"Forget about us?" Naruto asked as the ninja were focusing on the dragon and not him and his other two clones whose hair was being flown about in a pillar of ranging wind.

Shikamaru and Kakashi were looking out across the battlefield and watched the great dragon descend while the others were watching over their teams. Cries of horror and pain, along with the clanking of weapons, echoed in the forest, frightening the greener of the ninja. Like usual, Shikamaru was watching the clouds for just a moment of peace when he saw the very clouds start swirling around one common point. The sky looked frightening with the upper atmosphere swirling in a vortex like manner, enough so that Shikamaru decided to bring it up.

"What do you suppose that is? Is it a counter attack?" Kakashi looked in the direction he was staring and his eyes nearly jumped from his head.

"Unbelievable… he actually finished it." Kakashi's voice was showing he was completely in awe.

"Finished?"

"Naruto, that attack he used years ago on Kakuzu that left the huge crater… That was his attack that was only half finished."

"Interesting…" Shikamaru lazily stood and looked over the ninja ranks. "Well, everyone, that must be the go ahead… Attack!" A loud roaring cheer was heard as ninja, from all over, jumped through the trees. While some were yelling, the others were silently running ahead to get the first strike; the battle was fully underway.

"Fuuton: Ketteiteki Rasengan! (Wind release: Final Rasengan)" Naruto lunged forward while gritting his teeth at the weight on his body. Finally, a huge explosion of wind flew across the area to his front, sending ninja flailing through the air to many broken bones. The ones that kept themselves stuck to the ground with chakra were about to see that the wind wasn't the attack but only a side effect of what was next. The ground groaned in protest as chunks of the earth were torn apart, similar to the Chidori being dragged across the ground, but on a much larger scale. With a guttural yell, Naruto slammed his basketball sized Rasengan against the ground and was thrown backwards from the resulting explosion. He landed hard into Hinata's arms like was planned, but it still knocked her on her back and winded her a bit. When they stood, the dust was settling and revealed a deep chasm, about five feet wide, where the attack was launched.

"Naruto-kun, why didn't you let me near you when you were perfecting that attack? It doesn't seem all that dangerous." Hinata mentioned while seeing the simple chasm.

"Really? Look further." More of the dust finally settled and Hinata's eyes went wide. At the end of the chasm was what appeared to be a small dried up lake bed, where there was only forest seconds before. They stepped to the outer edge of the crater and saw a person standing in the center with a blue haired girl next to him. Naruto smiled, there was the targets which he knew were hiding behind the army.

"There, Hinata, that is Pein and Konan. She uses origami paper in her attacks, and we have all been cut by paper before, so don't get hit." Naruto was about to jump into the crater when he saw Sumindra dropping to the ground. The moment he struck the earth, massive amounts of vines sprouted from the ground and wrapped the dragon, starting from his mouth and going onward. "So, Zetsu is here as well. Ero-sennin told me about him, I just hope the others get here before he becomes a problem. Also, keep an eye out for that Tobi guy, there is something strange about him, now let's go Hinata."

"Hai."

They both jumped into the crater and slid down the steep sides before entering an all out run. The three Akatsuki remained unmoving; they took no effort in readying for battle and remained perfectly calm. Seeing that they weren't on the attack, Naruto slowed up and stopped about ten feet away from them.

"So the Kyuubi greets us, or do you just wish to give up?" Pein asked. Naruto looked over him and saw the large, chubby man with facial piercings looking back.

"There is no way I am giving up."

"I see, you are like was reported, too stubborn, and stupid."

"Shut it or I'll shove a Rasengan down your throat!"

"Try it." Naruto growled angrily and formed a normal ball of chakra in his hands.

"Naruto-kun, don't…" Hinata begged, but Naruto seemed like he was in his own world and ignored her pleading. He charged recklessly at his opponent, which stood still in his path. Naruto grinned happily as he ran the ball directly into the man's face. The plump guy just opened his mouth and sucked in the chakra, absorbing the attack.

"You can't win like that. If that is all you can do." He quickly moved his hand to Naruto's arm and with a swift movement, he sent out a large explosion, tearing off the blonde's arm. Hinata screamed in horror of the blood being showered over the area, but remained firm as tears started forming in her eyes. The bloodied Naruto stood with a smirk. You could tell his legs were broken as well, but he stood on them anyways.

"Kids these days… so eager to die. I had a teacher once that was very much the same."

"Yeah, I think I know the guy." Hinata was kind of startled when she saw Naruto dressed in his completely black martial arts attire, except for the bright orange kanji for toad adorning the back, step out from the shadow of the bloodied blonde.

"Gama Daira Kage Ayatsuri no Jutsu?(Toad-Silhouette Control Technique)" Naruto smiled as the bloodied body disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I take it you've seen the technique. Combine it with a shadow clone and you have a disposable body that can easily be mistaken as real. Since you knew that jutsu; that clearly makes you the leader of Akatsuki." Hinata couldn't figure out when it was that he switched out with a clone since she has been with him the entire time, but it didn't matter now that he was perfectly well.

"Where did you learn that? I killed that man years ago."

"Yes and no, Ero-Sennin is still alive for the most part, so I have been training with him for one purpose, and that is to defeat you, Pein. I knew that body you are using can absorb chakra, but I wanted to see it for myself. Now before we really get started, how about you bring out the others, I can't have you trying to surprise me with them." Pein looked at Naruto's confident face and to Hinata who was definitely determined not to fail at this point in her life.

"Eh, I'll pass. Zetsu, Konan, take care of these speed bumps, just be careful of the nine tails, its chakra is immense and don't completely kill it, I need it to be alive."

"Yes leader-sama." The both of them chimed in unison.

"Get ready Hinata, it starts now." Naruto readied for battle while Hinata stayed close and activated her Byakugan. Her kind demeanor was gone and in its place was a ferocious kunoichi, determined to never fail. If you had never seen this side of the female Hyuuga, you would clearly not recognize her because of it. Zetsu melted into the ground and appeared right before Naruto with a hungry grin. He looked over to Konan with the grin remaining and this time looked back to Hinata.

"Konan, can I have yours when you are done, she looks much sweeter; besides I would have to wait until the beast is removed with the other one."

"Like I care."

"Excellent, now, how would she best be prepared…? I could barbeque…" Hinata looked disgusted and Naruto wasn't much better at the action the man was referring to. "Shut up and take care of them first, we can play with our food later." Naruto continued watching the plant guy talk to himself, but decided to cut it short. After creating a single clone, he started his strategy. Making a quick low powered Rasengan, he slammed it into the ground, kicking up dust all around, causing most to shield their eyes from all the grit flying through the air. Hinata watched Naruto come to her side and slip a small kunai into her pouch. She patted the pouch to let him know that she felt what he did, just as the dust settled to reveal Zetsu standing unfazed by the distraction.

"What was that f…?" Zetsu immediately stopped his question as he felt movement underground and threw himself to the side, with a set of vines, just as a Rasengan, in the hands of a clone, erupted from the earth. The clone was easily countered with a series of thorny vines, cast from the man's fingers, ripping across its neck, ending it in a poof.

"Well then pretty one, I suppose we should get started as well." Konan wasted no time and started hurling small paper pieces towards Hinata. They looked harmless until the technique was actually activated "Kami Shuriken (Paper Shuriken)" The small pieces of paper then quickly folded into tiny throwing stars and started to gain speed. Hinata didn't flinch or even worry at this point since her training has taken her Byakugan to places she didn't think were even possible for her to achieve. Back as a genin, she could just see objects and attempt to dodge them, but now it was easy to calculate the trajectory and flight path of any series of objects coming her way, that definitely made the next task so much easier. Hinata still wore a straight, serious, face as she just started pointing at each of the small stars, with one single finger, although her movements were so quick that it was hard to see where her hand was at a given time.

"What else do you have?" Hinata asked confidently as the stars were shredded into nothing, only inched from her unmoving face.

"Excellent, I guess I can actually try now." Hinata nodded in agreement while one foot was silently sliding back in the dirt as she adjusted the angle of her front foot into the comfortable stance of the gentle fist. "Don't get too cocky little Hyuuga, I'm not a close range fighter." Konan leapt into the air as small shards of paper formed on her back into delicate looking wings, slowly moving in order to keep her just out of reach in the air. Hinata didn't really have much for long range abilities so her only choice was to defend until an opening arises. "It is just a matter of time before you tire from my onslaught." Konan reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of cat shaped origami animal and threw them to the ground. Immediately the paper beasts grew to life size with fangs bared and ready to pounce. For just a moment they watched Hinata, and then with a beastly growl they attacked…

Rai, Yuki, Yugito and Gaara were having an easier time cutting through the enemy, but for every ninja struck down, two more would appear in their place. The bodies were slowly piling up around them and they were really trying to figure out if it was even possible to keep it up for another 3 hours, or if they'd just drop from exhaustion. Their movements started getting heavier and slower as the four started moving closer to each other for further backup in their weakened state.

"Yuki, how much more do you have? The Nekomata is starting to tire out so I'll be on my own in about five minutes."

"My wolf isn't much better." Yuki replied back as she struck down another ninja with the edge of her sword. Just at that moment, they felt a thundering of the earth and looked to see two giant red haired men stomping through the army and kicking their bodies into the air, heading straight for them. The smaller of the two seemed to lose his balance and was falling face first, straight for them. A huge shuttering of the earth came next as dust filled the sky followed by a voice.

"I brought some chakra pills." Through the dust came a much smaller form from previously holding out a small bag.

"They better not be barbeque flavor, those last ones were horrible." Gaara commented as he grabbed the bag and passed it around the group.

"Nope, those were limited edition, these are just the standard variety." Choji replied sadly.

"They'll do fine, thanks Choji." Rai clapped the large guy on the back once before popping a pill into his mouth and felt the chakra surge throughout his body. "Yeah, that's better."

"Alright, stay alive." Choji called out before charging into the coming wave of ninja. They watched the Akamichi tear straight into the battle as his arms grew in size to increase his attacks. A fury of punches were thrown out as ninja flew through the air before Choji disappeared into the crowd of the shouting enemy.

Naruto was dodging the thorny vines as they whipped out at him with others sprouting from the ground in attempts to ensnare him from below. Naruto came at Zetsu head on and started batting the vines away as a Rasengan sat in him palm for a strike. Just as he was almost there, a vine caught him from the ground, tripping him up just as the thorny whip like vines struck across his back relentlessly.

"Rasengan!" Zetsu quickly turned as a ball of chakra was almost in his face. Just on instinct, his head ducked down and the flytrap like appendage closed around him just as the Rasengan hit. Zetsu shouted out in pain as the attack shredded the hardened outer layer of the protective pod. Immediately he started to spin around with his vine whipping in every direction. Naruto leapt backwards away from the tornado like defense and waited for his opportunity to attack.

"Damn it." Naruto cursed as the plant guy kept whipping his vines about randomly. Hoping for an opening to arrive, Naruto started focusing in on creating another elemental Rasengan. His clone ran forward at Zetsu to test the defensive ability and didn't even get close before a thorny whip like vine dispersed him. Naruto was about to go for broke when the ground started rumbling from the roar of Sumindra. He paused and looked to the mighty dragon as his scales started to have a dim white fog rolling off his body.

"I cannot be held by mere vines!" Another loud roar sounded across the field followed by many loud snaps as the vines gave way. "You want to battle a bijuu? Aisu itadaki (Ice Spire)" Sumindra stomped hard on the ground, sending a trail of ice towards Zetsu when huge spires of ice jutted up from the ground. Zetsu kept spinning to the side to avoid the ice, but in the midst of his rotations, he couldn't see that he was falling into a trap. "Aisu kangoku (Ice Prison)" He was finally caught between bars of reinforced ice on all sides, including the top and bottom. Before long the ice spread to his vines and enveloped him in an icy cocoon.

"Nice, now to be sure… Fuuton: Rasengan!" Naruto came diving out of the air and slammed the simple first stage of his elemental attack into the ice and watched as it tore up the frozen water easily and soon shredded apart the head of Zetsu. Luckily everything was still frozen, otherwise it would have been a gruesome mess.

"I'm clearing out for now, fight well young ones." Sumindra moved his wings and quickly lifted into the sky and away from the battle zone. He didn't want to let anyone know how close he was to defeat by a set of vines and knew it was up to the others to save the world.

Hinata sharpened the chakra around her fingers and started slicing apart the paper creature, but for each beast that was struck down, there were more to further impede her attack. She continued to analyze the woman through her dojutsu and soon caught a glimpse of something different as a small swarm of locusts were flying towards her. Defense was one of Hinata's strong areas and she knew full well what could take down these swarming pests. She started quickly moving her hands as she shot out small bursts of chakra which appeared like senborn as they sliced through the swarm, but the moment they were destroyed, they lit on fire.

"She used exploding tags to make them?" She muttered to herself quietly. She took off running as a series of explosions went off in her wake with each one getting much closer than she would have liked. The swarms were after her in droves, almost like she was fighting off Shino's bugs, they were nearly countless. "Kaiten!" Hinata kept the defensive shield of chakra around her as explosions rained down on the dome. She could feel each and every one of them impact her defense and drain more chakra as she had to reinforce it with even more chakra. Finally the explosions stopped and she stopped spinning. She was feeling a bit dizzy from spinning for so long, but could still keep her balance while she panted for more air. Her skin was covered in dark soot from the explosives and she just smeared it around as she wiped her brow of sweat.

"Not bad for someone as young as you are. I suppose in a few more years you could give me a challenge."

"Well, there is still something you can learn… Never underestimate a failure, they don't have much to lose but everything to prove." Hinata ran forward, straight at Konan, when she got close, she jumped into the air after the Akatsuki kunoichi.

"You'll have to do better than that…"

"Like this?" a voice called out behind her. Konan quickly turned to find another Hinata landing a punch to her face. Konan fell towards the earth and was met by the real Hinata as she passed by her body in mid jump, but timed the next attack well, stomping on her face in midair and increasing the speed of her decent. Konan finally struck the ground and was about to try standing up when Hinata's clone landed with full force of the fall, jamming her knees into the stomach of the woman. "Nyu-raru Yusuburu (Neural Jolt)" Hinata's crackling hand passed gently over Konan's heart and forced a great amount of lightning based chakra into her system, effectively shutting down her entire body. The clone dispersed as Hinata checked for a pulse, she found it was quite weak, but she was still alive. Even though they were enemies, she still didn't want to take a life.

"You ok Hinata?" She looked up and smiled seeing her loving husband by her side.

"Hai, she isn't dead yet."

"Fine, but that is dangerous to leave things unfinished." Naruto ran through a couple hand signs and placed his hand on Konan's head. There was just a bright flash and she was gone.

"What did you do to her Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked hoping that he didn't just kill her after all her trouble to not end her life.

"I summoned her to the inside of a toad, she'll be trapped there until we are finished here and she wont be able to escape if she happens to wake, now lets go and take care of Pein." They both stood up and looked directly at the Akatsuki leader. "Enough stalling, bring out your other bodies and let's get this thing going!"

(ending notes)

The final chapter should hit tomorrow...Later